SEARCA News

ORIENTAL MINDORO, Philippines – SEARCA's project on Upgrading the Calamansi Value Chain towards Improving the Calamansi Industry in Oriental Mindoro, funded by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research, identified possible areas for the establishment of demonstration farms to improve the existing production management for increased yield and off-season fruiting on 23-24 May 2019.  The project team selected three demo-farms from each of the municipalities of Victoria, Naujan, and Pola, where the best practices in calamansi production will be showcased. These practices include the use of proven technologies and practices in irrigation, integrated pest management, correct fertilizer application, canopy management… Read more

HANOI, Vietnam – The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) organized back-to-back national-level events under the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-funded project Agricultural Transformation and Market Integration in the ASEAN Region: Responding to Food Security and Inclusiveness Concerns (ATMI-ASEAN) on 10 May 2019 at IPSARD Office.  The first activity was the policy roundtable (PRT) on Pig Sector in the New Context: Some Policy Implications for Small Pig Households. The discussions focused on the rapid value chain study on pig being… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines – The team of the Market Study Component of the project Upgrading the Calamansi Value Chain towards Improving the Calamansi Industry of Oriental Mindoro conducted an initial consumer preference survey on the calamansi concentrate, a product of Oriental Mindoro, in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus, in a company canteen in Carmelray Industrial Park, and in a public resort in Los Baños, Laguna on 7-12 May 2019.  The survey gathered information about the consumer preference and acceptability of the calamansi concentrate. The calamansi concentrate used in the survey was provided by three, namely, the Matulatula… Read more

MAKATI CITY, Philippines – The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), in partnership with the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA), organized the 2nd National Project Steering Committee (NPSC) Meeting of the Philippine component of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-funded project Agricultural Transformation and Market Integration in the ASEAN Region: Responding to Food Security and Inclusiveness Concerns (ATMI-ASEAN) on 26 April 2019 at the Dusit Thani Manila hotel, here.  The meeting was conducted to update the NPSC members and the ATMI-ASEAN project implementers on the status of the national-level policy study on Value… Read more

Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio has been appointed as new Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), an inter-government treaty organization hosted by the Philippine government on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), for a three-year term and he assumed office on 1 May 2019. Dr. Gregorio is the eleventh to hold the top SEARCA post since its establishment in November 1966 by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). Dr. Gregorio is also an Academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) of the… Read more

ORIENTAL MINDORO, Philippines - A baseline study for the project Upgrading the Calamansi Value Chain towards Improving the Calamansi Industry of Oriental Mindoro was conducted by the project team composed of staff from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and partners from Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology (MinSCAT) on 22-26 April 2019. Farmer-members of the Victoria Kalamansi Farmers Federation (VKFF), traders, and processors in the municipalities of Victoria, Naujan, and San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro were interviewed.  Of the eight groups of processors interviewed, six are led by females, who are either the general managers or the… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines – The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has successfully trained learners on video editing and online media production during the third face-to-face (F2F) session of the Information and Knowledge Management (IKM) Mentorship Program: Communicating Agriculture and Fisheries Research for Inclusive and Sustainable Development (CAFRISD), on 24-26 April 2019, at the SEARCA Residence Hotel Annex.  The IKM Mentorship Program is a capacity-building project funded by the Philippine Department of Agriculture–Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR). It aims to facilitate improved agricultural and fisheries research reporting and knowledge management. It employs a blended… Read more

BOGOR, Indonesia – Sixteen (16) institutions consisting of embassies, universities, other educational organizations, and scholarship providers, including SEARCA, participated in the Scholarship Expo at the IPB JOB FAIR 2019 held on 27-28 April 2019 at the main campus of Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB). In addition, more than thirty (34) corporations also participated in the Career Expo of the same event. More than two thousand undergraduate and post graduate students, as well as recent graduates, attended the event.  The job fair is being organized by the Career Development and Assessment unit of IPB (CDA-IPB) every year, so that IPB students and… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA, Philippines – Deans and Heads of Animal Science and Crop Science Departments of six (6) member universities of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) revisited the status of curriculum and research programs on pasture and forage crops through a roundtable discussion held at the SEARCA Headquarters on 24- 25 April 2019. The two-day meeting aimed to identify the strengths, gaps, opportunities, and challenges in curriculum and research programs, and to recommend solutions to address the gaps and challenges, including those faced by students pursuing forage and pasture science as… Read more

LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA, Philippines – In its continuous commitment to promote inclusivity and sustainability in the agricultural value chain development, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) conducted the 2nd Value Chain Development (VCD) Course on 22-26 April 2019 at the SEARCA Headquarters, here.  On its second year, the SEARCA-pioneered VCD course aimed to look through the agricultural value chain lens in order to analyze and design interventions to promote value addition for various value chain players, especially the marginalized actors in the process. Accordingly, the course also sought to capacitate the participants in… Read more